A 100 Percent True, Non Exaggerated Tale
by Marie The Crocheter
Summary: Hanso's stories are popular with the young faerie neopets, and the kids demand that he finally tell them FULL the story of how he saved the faeries! The story of TFR, from Hanso's POV, with Brynn correcting him when necessary, of course.
1. Chapter 1

So now I'm one of the dozens people who have written my own story about the events of_ The Faeries' Ruin!_ Yay! (Oh, wait...) This takes place in the same continuity as my story _Of Angelpi and Qasalan Coffee,_ and there are a few references to it. Not many, though. The kids are my original characters and will probably show up in other stories. (They're not based on my own neopets, though.)

In my mind, Faerieland's inhabitants consist mostly of faeries and faerie neopets, so that's what I went with in this story.

I hate coming up with titles, and I figured that "A 100% True, Non-Exaggerated Tale" sounds like something Hanso would say. Ahem.

I am a Brynnso shipper, but since I feel very awkward writing about romance, I don't touch on it too much. Of course, it's impossible to write about TFR without touching on it a little, hehe.

The story is entirely written, so I'm just giving it the finishing touches and hope I can add a new chapter every couple of days!

And I would like to thank Sport (Star-Speckled Dragon) for giving me some ideas!

* * *

Faerie City. Those words used to bring up images of beautiful buildings high in the clouds, populated by a race of faeries and some faerie neopets. The various shades of pink and purple used to colour their homes and shops contrasted nicely with the white clouds and blue sky. The city's pride and joy was the royal castle, a spectacular building with tall towers that was inhabited by one of the most powerful rulers in all of Neopia.

Yet, even Queen Fyora had been unable to prevent the terrible tragedy that had befallen her land.

The scheming of one jealous, angry xweetok had literally caused the faeries' world to come crashing down. The city was now located in a huge crater between Brightvale and the Haunted Woods. All of Neopia would have suffered a terrible fate if not for the heroic deeds of a mischievous ixi thief named Hanso and the captain of the Brightvale guards, a kougra named Brynn. They made an unlikely team, but together, they had been able to save the world.

Now, about a year and a half since the residents of Faerieland had been rescued, most of the homes and shops had been rebuilt, though many still had temporary, unpainted wooden patches on the roof or cracks in the masonry. At this rate, it appeared as though their city might be stuck on the ground for quite some time. The residents were no longer restricted to just faeries and faerie neopets; many others had moved here to lend a hand in the rebuilding process. Others, such as the afore-mentioned thief and captain of the Brightvale guard, had made this place their new home base to help keep it, and the rest of Neopia, safe from other evil schemers. It wasn't an easy job, and between missions they spent a lot of time in Faerieland with little to do (or Hanso had very little to do, at least), but both Hanso and Brynn felt the job was well worth it!

Hanso had known Brynn for several years. He didn't remember_ exactly_ how old he had been during their first encounter on the streets of Brightvale, but he couldn't have been older than his early teens. She was slightly older, but since he'd hit a growth spurt shortly after their first meeting, he had long been taller than she. Despite the fact that their occupations put them at odds with each other (he was a thief, she worked in law enforcement), they had somehow managed to forge a friendship of sorts.

He'd never imagined that a time would come when they could be open about their friendship, and he had never even _tried_ to imagine that their relationship could develop to something more. Sure, that desire had always been buried deep in the back of his mind, for although Brynn could be hard to get along with, Hanso found her attractive in a number of ways. He had long been under the impression that Brynn felt the same way, although the kougra would never admit it. Brynn had a tough exterior (how else would she have survived in the guards, huh?), but Hanso knew that deep down, she was a total softie, especially when it came to him.

Now, everything had changed. Not only could they openly be friends, they actually lived and worked together. In fact, Hanso honestly didn't realize how precious Brynn was to him until he was able to have her by his side most of the time—and now, he couldn't imagine what life would be like without her. How had he ever managed to live before?

"Have I ever told you that faerie furniture creeps me out?" Hanso asked as he and Brynn took a walk through the business district of Faerie City. Brynn was off duty until tomorrow morning, so he'd convinced her to leave the castle for a little while. He was pretty sure the other guards were eager to see him gone for the afternoon, anyway. "It just...I don't know. I think it's the wings?"

"Or the fact that so much furniture is pink?" Brynn asked, glancing at the shop that Hanso was talking about. A few ovens were lined up for display outside, and every single one of them had wings attached to either the front or back. Most of the ovens were blue or yellow. "Okay, so only one is pink. I guess the wings make them...unique?"

"Pink doesn't bother me. It might not look too good on me, but it looks absolutely _great _on you," he said with a sly grin, which got him a glare from Brynn. She was wearing most of her Faerieland Guard uniform: a tunic in a very dark dusty rose colour and grey trousers. Quite often she wore chain mail or armour, but since she wasn't actually on duty at the moment, she had no armour. Nor was she wearing her cape, helmet, or sword. "But I think some of that furniture probably belongs in the Haunted Woods," he continued. "It must have been delivered to the wrong place!"

Brynn laughed. "You always say the same thing about faerie food, too—"

"Oh, don't get me started on _that_ one!"

"—but it's simply something you'll get used to over—hey, we've got company!"

Hanso then noticed the flock of young faerie neopets coming toward them. There were six of them; two were siblings, and they were all friends with each other. Hanso knew them quite well, for this same group of children often found him no matter where he was in Faerie City, and when they got to him, there was only one thing they wanted.

"There he is!" Ileana the faerie ixi (a colour Hanso had said time after time that he would _not_ like to be painted) pointed to him, and the entire group ran to catch up with him and Brynn.

"Hey there, haven't seen you guys in a few days," Hanso said enthusiastically. One of the girls, a faerie shoyru named Nuala, even hugged him before moving on to Brynn to give her a hug, too.

Cael the faerie eyrie (who also happened to be Ileana's little brother) wasted no time in getting to the point. "Can't you tell us a story?" he begged. "It's been two whole days since you told us one!"

"A story? We were kinda...in the middle of a walk," Hanso said, glancing at Brynn, who shrugged.

"I don't mind," she said. "It's better than hearing you complain about faerie food and furniture."

The kids giggled while Hanso scowled at Brynn. "All right, I guess I could manage one."

Of course, he would need a place to sit. The nearby fountain looked like a good spot, so he motioned to it. "Let's go over here." He sat on the edge of the fountain while Brynn took a seat next to him, and the kids sat on the ground at their feet. This fountain had a nice wide ledge, though he'd have to make sure Brynn didn't dump him in. She'd done that once before, when he _apparently_ said something extremely offensive while telling a story. Hanso leaned forward to address the kids. "So... Which one do you guys want to hear? Wanna hear one about my amazing adventures in Brightvale? Or about our adventure in Qasala a few weeks ago?"

"Oh, no, you haven't told them about that, have you?" Brynn asked in alarm. She was always worried about something, so this was nothing new. She _seriously_ needed some advice on how to relax.

Hanso grinned. "How I publicly humiliated Jazan by salting the coffee and stealing the scroll from the supposedly thief-proof room? Honestly, Brynn, how could I _not_ tell them about it?"

Brynn buried her face in her hands while the kids laughed. "Oh, Hanso, how could you?"

"Because he's awesome!" Erik the faerie bruce piped up. "I wanna be like Hanso when I grow up!"

"You're a smart kid, Erik." Hanso leaned forward to pat the top of Erik's head. "So, what do you want to hear today?"

"Could you tell us about how you and Captain Brynn saved the faeries?" Adele the aisha asked. "You've never told us the whole story!"

"That's because it's kind of long," Hanso told her. "Longer than _any_ other story I've ever told before!"

"And not entirely child-appropriate, though I'm sure that's never stopped you before," Brynn muttered.

Ileana's ears perked up and she gasped with excitement. "Oh, yeah, tell that story! Captain Brynn can help you, because she was there, right?"

"You don't have to call her 'Captain'...though it might be a good idea," Hanso corrected himself upon seeing Brynn's angry glare. "I guess we can tell them about our grand adventure, huh, Brynn? Captain?"

"Go ahead," Brynn said.

"So, it all began when I was in Faerieland, and happened to see what appeared to be Hubrid Nox, holding a flat round object, chanting something about—"

"Hanso." Brynn's voice was even, but he could detect a trace of annoyance.

"...What? Are you going to make a habit of interrupting me?" he asked, pretending to be offended. "It's hard to tell a story like that!"

"Why don't you start from the beginning?"

Nuala nodded. "We _all_ already know that wasn't Hubrid Nox," she said.

"Yeah, start at the beginning!" Cael demanded.

"The beginning!" Tanith the draik, usually the quietest of the bunch, chimed in.

"The beginning?" He turned to Brynn, slightly confused. "You mean, when I was at Xandra's...?"

Brynn nodded. "That's the beginning, isn't it?"

"But you're always threatening me when I say stuff that you think could corrupt Neopia's youth!"

"I'll make an exception this time."

"See? This is why Brynn is awesome! OK." Hanso rubbed his hands together. "Let's get this story started!"


	2. Chapter 2

Well, I found a place that seemed like a fairly good place for a break and then went with it. Yay! I may not be able to post anything tomorrow, because I have a doctor's appointment and those tend to take hours. =( Boo.

Ohh, the ending part of this chapter is so cheesy, but I edited it about ten million times and it doesn't seem to bad to me. Anything that smacks of romance makes me feel so awkward. I need to write more of it so that I lose that awkwardness...

It was about at the point where they were talking about Brynn's helmet that I realised that I like to make Hanso embarrass Brynn as much as he can. Poor, poor Brynn. She probably hates me.

I have no idea how big faerie bubbles are supposed to be. I imagine them being about the size of marbles.

* * *

"It all began one lovely day here in Faerieland, when I decided to finally liberate some of the expensive-looking stuff I had noticed Xandra kept in her home," Hanso began. "I'd been watching her for a while, and waited until I thought she was out of the house to go in and take the stuff that she technically wasn't supposed to have in the first place." He glanced at Brynn as he spoke to judge her reaction. She met his gaze and tentatively nodded her approval. "Of course, I didn't know I was actually performing a great heroic deed at the time, but that would soon become clear."

Now Brynn shook her head, but she still didn't say anything, so he continued. "Unfortunately, I hadn't learned her schedule as well as I thought, because Xandra _was_ there, so I had my hands full. She chased me around and tried to blast me with her magic, but I was much too agile and her aim was pretty bad. I escaped and headed to an island out somewhere, I don't remember." That was a lie, but he didn't really want to give too much detail about where he'd gone. "I had a colleague of my mine spread it around that I had magical artefacts for sale, and I quickly got a message from someone who wanted to meet in Faerieland, which was pretty weird."

"It was Hubrid Nox," Adele said knowingly.

"You mean, Xandra disguised as Hubrid Nox," Ileana corrected her.

"Yeah. I was...surprised, to say the least," Hanso said. "I showed Nox all the stuff I had to offer, and he just wanted that round thing. He paid a good price for it, too. So I rounded up the rest of the stuff and was about to leave, but something told me that I should probably wait and see what Nox was up to. The whole situation seemed really, really weird. I mean, what was he doing in _Faerieland_, of all places? It just wasn't right!"

"And yet, you didn't let that stop you from selling him something that you knew might be dangerous," Brynn said.

"Brynn, he was a customer. I had to give him what he wanted!"

"What happened to the other things you stole?" Adele asked.

"Oh, I held on to 'em. Now they're in the castle vaults. Apparently, Xandra liked to collect a lot of dangerous stuff. I actually did us all a big favour by taking them from her!"

"Yeah, you've made that pretty clear," Brynn muttered. "Move on."

"Well, I think we all know what happened next, right?" Hanso asked, looking at the kids. "What did 'Nox' do?"

"He used the artefact to turn everyone at the faerie festival to stone!" Tanith said.

"Yeah, that means all the faeries and some faerie neopets." Ileana pointed to herself and her brother. "Like us! We were stone!"

"Somehow, Nox, er, Xandra, whatever, managed to miss me, but she had no idea I was still there, so that's probably why. It seemed she was only after the faeries and a handful of faerie neopets. I'm _definitely_ not a faerie, so..."

Brynn chuckled. "I'll bet you'd look good as a faerie ixi."

"Ohh, no, Brynn. I'll do that only if you agree to paint yourself faerie, too!"

"Hmm." Brynn rested her left elbow on her knee and her chin on her knuckles. She looked lost in thought. "I suppose it _might_ be nice to have wings..."

Hanso cringed, and Brynn laughed and sat up straight. "I'm just kidding! ...Kind of. I can't imagine you as a faerie ixi. That wouldn't suit you at all."

"No, it wouldn't. If I'm ever painted another colour it would probably be pirate or something. Anyway, after 'Nox' turned everyone at the festival to stone, I decided to stay and take a look around."

Brynn shook her head. "You mean, you were going around town, seeing what you could steal from the fossilized faeries!"

"Nooo, Brynn, not quite. I was, uh, enjoying myself, trying on some of their jewelry!"

"Trying on jewelry?" Adele asked with a giggle. "Did he really do that, Captain Brynn?"

"Ooh, yeah, I did!" Hanso spoke up before Brynn could. "I was wearing this charming tiara for a while. You should have seen it!"

"I didn't see that, but I wouldn't put it past him," Brynn told the kids. "Hanso does some really weird things sometimes."

"Do I? I guess I do. All was quiet for a while, and then I heard some voices approaching, so I ran and hid behind a faerie statue, which was actually a fossilized faerie, I guess. It turned out that King Altador and two of his guards had come to see what had happened that the festival! Word can really travel around fast."

"It did. It's not every day that you can see a bright flash of light from Faerieland all the way down in Brightvale," Brynn said. "King Hagan thought that was very odd, so he sent me to go check it out."

"Yep, Brynn showed up a few minutes later. They were all extremely glad to see me, of course."

"Oh, no we weren't," Brynn immediately interrupted, shaking her finger at him as she spoke. "If I remember right, we all pulled our swords out on you _twice!_"

"Details, details..."

"And King Altador said you looked unsavoury, and King Jazan lifted you by the collar of your shirt and shook you around—and the jewelry that fell out of your pockets was a _clear _indication that you had been stealing..."

The kids giggled at the mental image on that.

"...and you had the nerve to try to charge us to tell us what happened..."

"I woulda stuck with that had you not been there. I didn't trust anyone else, especially not Jazan. I agreed to tell everything for free just for you, sweetheart," Hanso said with a big grin. And then he paused. "Huh. You know, I was confused at first as to why Jazan was spying on me, but I think I figured it out later."

"Why did King Hagan just send you? Why didn't he send any other guards with you?" Tanith asked Brynn.

"Well...we didn't really know what was going on," Brynn said. "All we saw was a bright flash of light. Since I was one of the highest-ranking and most athletic guards, King Hagan thought I would be the best to check it out. By the time I realized how bad things were, it was too late to go back to Brightvale for reinforcements. And when I _did_ go back to Brightvale, it was a mess!"

"Not to mention, Altador pretty much gave you command of the guards he brought with him," Hanso added. "Even though they weren't, uh...the brightest of the bunch."

"And, honestly, when I saw Hanso, I figured this was some cruel twist of fate to punish me for allowing him to get away so many times," Brynn added. "I knew we'd be in for a tough time."

Hanso laughed. "Cruel twist of fate? I thought it was awesome, because then I might get to hang out with you somewhere _other_ than the Brightvale dungeons. Anyway, where were we...?"

"At the point where you told us your first version of the events that froze the faeries," Brynn told him.

"Ah, yes! I told them what happened, or, part of it, anyway, so we headed to Faerie City to take a look into it. I don't know how Altador knew of Xandra, but he did, and he knew she was doing research, so we headed over to go meet her. Unfortunately, when we found her and that old ogrin who was with her for some reason, she was still mad at me from our previous encounter."

"Why'd you go with them to meet Xandra in the first place?" Cael asked.

"I didn't know who she was yet," Hanso admitted. "I'd spent lots of time studying her house and her schedule, but I had never taken the time to be sociable and learn her name. Thieves don't usually do that. So I didn't know who this person called 'Xandra' was until I saw her."

"And she wasn't too happy to see you," Ileana giggled.

"That's an understatement," Brynn muttered.

"Yeah, she tried to blast me again, and I had to explain everything from the beginning. Xandra really liked to emphasize that stealing from her was apparently some _really_ big deal—"

"—and it _was_—"

"And, Brynn, didn't Xandra say something weird to you? Like, about you trusting me or something?" Hanso grinned at her. "I know I heard something..."

"N-no," Brynn stammered. "I mean, I trusted your story, but so did King Altador!"

"Good enough. Xandra claimed she didn't know which artefact 'Nox' had used to turn the faeries to stone, so I drew a picture to show everyone which one it was. Hey, does anyone have a piece of paper and a pencil handy? I could draw a replica of the picture if you want to see it."

Brynn muttered something under her breath and raised one of her hands to her forehead in a gesture similar to what's usually referred to as a "facepalm."

"I do!" Erik said. "Hold on." He took a notebook out of the backpack he'd carried with him, and dug a pencil out of the front pocket of the bad. He handed both to Hanso. "There you go!"

"Thanks, Erik. Let's see here... I think it went like this." Hanso scribbled for several moments. "Ah yes. Just as much of a masterpiece as the original!" He held it up for the kids to see. "That's me, obviously," he pointed to the stick figure representing him, the only real details being a short ponytail, a large round object in one hand, and a small cloud of dust behind him. "This is the artefact, and this little cloud of dust shows how fast I was going. And back here," he pointed to the second figure, a long-haired female with a big scowl on her face, "That's Xandra. She wasn't really pleased about my visit, and making her mad was a lot of fun."

"I've always meant to ask: Why did you include Xandra in your drawing?" Brynn asked.

"I just liked seeing her angry. No real reason! Thanks, Erik, you can keep it." Brynn muttered something under her breath while Hanso handed the notebook and pencil back to the bruce. "So we then made our way to the Haunted Woods, since we still thought that it was Hubrid Nox behind the whole mess."

"But it wasn't really Hubrid Nox," Ileana said again. "It was Xandra in disguise!"

"Yeah, you've said that a few times, Ileana," Hanso said. "Frankly, I've always wondered why Xandra chose to disguise herself Nox. It seems like a really weird choice. She must have had some deep-seated grudge against him, too. But the fact that she was very familiar with the process of buying stuff on the black market shows that she was very, very evil!"

"Uhm..." Tanith hesitated. "B-but, you were _selling_ stuff on the black market... Doesn't that make you evil, too?"

Hanso paused, wide-eyed and shocked, as Brynn and the other kids burst out laughing. "Uhm, uh..." he stammered, for once at a loss for words. "No. It doesn't. I'm not evil. And that's that."

"She's got you there, Hanso," Brynn said, still giggling as she gave Hanso a friendly pat on the shoulder.

"Shut up, Brynn. Anyway. Let's move on! I guess Xandra just wanted to lead us in circles so that we wouldn't be able to rescue the faeries. Whatever the case, we headed to the Haunted Woods and arrived at Nox's castle. Brynn was really nice to me; she didn't even handcuff me on the way there, even though some of the others really wanted to!"

"They would have, if I hadn't convinced them that you weren't that much of a threat," Brynn said, still smiling, though she had mostly regained her composure.

"Did you really have to go with them, anyway?" Cael asked. "I mean, Xandra knew what the artefact looked like, and she had it with her, anyway..."

"Yeah, well, they just wanted my company, I guess." Hanso shrugged.

"No, that wasn't it," Brynn interjected. "As far as we knew, you had committed a crime. You were in custody. Faerieland's law enforcement system wasn't working, so I took charge of you!"

"You just wanted me around, darlin'. I figured that out really fast."

The kids giggled while Brynn glared. "That's not true."

"Yeah, it is! Don't deny it!"

"Just move on, please!"

"So we arrived at Hubrid Nox's castle. It was a bright and cheery place deep in the beautiful Haunted Woods. Jazan suggested that we take Nox's castle by force, which, honestly, just shows how reckless and stupid he is."

Brynn shook her head but said nothing.

"The skeith and draik from Altador were supposed to be watching me, which they did. They watched me wander off and try to find an alternate way in. Apparently, they didn't quite understand what 'keep an eye on Hanso' meant, but that worked out fine for me. For some reason, everyone but me wanted to use the front gates, which wasn't very smart."

"I don't think any of us had ever been in a situation like this before, so we didn't know what to do," Brynn protested. "We don't sneak around. We take direct action."

"And it worked out _really great _for you, didn't it?" Hanso asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Brynn's voice faltered. "Well, I followed _you_, but..."

"No one else did! And guess what? Someone—Xandra, I think—tripped the castle's security system, and everyone but me and Brynn were trapped!"

"You also ran into Nox before I caught up with you, didn't you?" Brynn asked.

"Oh, yeah. Lemme back up a little. I climbed through the window into what appeared to be some sort of library, and ran into Nox. He didn't recognize me or know what I was talking about, which I thought was really weird. Of course, he was who knows how old, so maybe he was getting a little senile, but—"

"You'd never actually met Nox before, just Xandra disguised as Nox," Ileana stated.

"Would you cut that out? We all know that," Erik whined. Ileana turned around and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Very good, Ileana. Brynn came in just as Nox was leaving, so she didn't actually hear any of our conversation. She didn't see him throw the crystal ball at me, either!"

"I can't believe you let that scare you," Brynn muttered.

"Hey, you still had my dagger, so I was completely unarmed. I guess I could have thrown the crystal ball back at him, but I've never used those as weapons before, so I'm not sure how they work. I saw which book Nox pulled to open the passageway, so I opened it up for us and Brynn and I made our way to the security system's control room! It took us a little while to figure it out, but we made it."

"And I lost my helmet in that horrible tunnel," Brynn added. "I don't even know how that happened..."

"You accused me of tripping you, if I remember right."

"I did."

"Even though I _didn't_."

"You look better without a helmet, Captain Brynn," Ileana said.

"Yeah, you do," Nuala agreed. The other kids nodded.

"I need one when I'm on duty, though," Brynn protested. "It's important to protect one's head."

"You got through the rest of our adventure just fine without a helmet," Hanso pointed out. "And you look much, much better without it. I think I willed it off: since I knew we might be stuck together for a while, I wanted you to lose the helmet, but I knew you'd never take it off of your own accord. And then your fall in the tunnel took care of that! It was destiny, really!"

"Oh, you—"

"You're very beautiful, so you shouldn't let the helmet hide that."

"Shut up." Brynn was apparently trying to sound angry, but her face was a deep shade of pink and her voice a little uneven. The kids giggled again.

"So, anyway, Brynn and I managed to disable the security system and save everyone, and they decided to reward me by tying me to a tree! Great reward, huh? They apparently thought that I'd been the one to tip Nox off to their arrival, although it was actually Xandra's clumsiness that had done it."

"That seems pretty mean," Tanith said, looking at Brynn as she spoke.

"Well, I hadn't actually heard Hanso and Nox talking, so I didn't know what happened," Brynn said with a sigh. "I didn't think Hanso betrayed us, but some of the others, especially King Jazan and Xandra, really wanted to punish him for this, so..."

"Not even King Altador stood up for me that time," Hanso grumbled. "The ogrin master did at least scold Jazan, which was great, but it didn't change anything. The draik never said anything and the skeith was too busy eating ice cream."

"...Ice cream?" Nuala asked.

"Nox had a lot of it for some reason. The skeith helped himself to it."

The kids exchanged glances. "Can we go get some ice cream real fast?" Ileana asked.

"Sure, we can take a little break," Hanso said. "Do you have money?"

"Yep, Mama gave me my allowance this morning," Erik said.

"Mine too."

"Mine gave me mine yesterday!"

"If you want to go run and get a treat, the food store is right there," Hanso said, pointing. "I'll be right here when you get back."

"OK, let's go!" The six kids got up to go and buy themselves treats.

"Do you want anything?" Brynn asked.

"Nah," he answered. "You?"

"I brought some faerie bubbles, actually," Brynn said, pulling a bag out of her knapsack. She rarely carried a purse, and even when she did, she refused to call it that.

Hanso watched her pour a few into her hand. "You've _really _taken a liking to those, haven't you? You always have some on you! The candy makers here must be enthralled."

"They're not taffy, but they're an acceptable substitute. Do you want any?"

"Sure, if you don't mind."

Brynn dropped a couple into the palm of his hand before popping a raspberry-flavoured one into her own mouth. "You know," she said after a moment, "I don't think I've told you this, but..."

"Something you haven't told me? Do elaborate."

She sighed, a low, sad sigh rather than a quick, exasperated one. He was expecting her to be angry or something, so this surprised him. "This story brings up some bad memories, of course, but I'm_ really_ sorry about the way we treated you at Nox's castle. I...I should have done a better job of standing up for you. I knew you didn't betray us, even though I had no proof..."

"No need to apologise, Brynn. It's all water under the bridge now."

"I _knew _there had to be more to it." She looked up at him, her baby blue eyes locking with his. Her eyes were so pretty! "But I...I just couldn't say anything." She looked down. "And that still bothers me."

Hanso smiled. Though Brynn was already sitting very close to him, he wrapped an arm around her waist and managed to pull her a little closer without actually pulling her into his lap. "Don't worry about it, sweetheart. It all worked out in the end. Oh, and I forgive you. I'm still working on forgiving Jazan, and I don't think I'll ever forgive Xandra, but I forgive you and Altador and everyone else."

Brynn managed to crack a small smile and looked up at him. Their faces were just inches apart, yet she didn't appear to feel awkward at all, which made him happy. "I'm glad to know that," she said. "But I wish you and King Jazan could learn to get along."

"Pfft, fat chance of that. I'll be surprised if he ever lets me in Qasala again, after that stunt I pulled."

"Which one? Salting the coffee or stealing the scroll?"

"Both."

"Maybe he's plotting revenge? I'm just glad we got to keep our jobs after your little...'stunt,' you called it?"

"I'd be shocked if he's _not_ plotting revenge! I think the queen expects me to steal things sometimes, you know? She wasn't at all surprised, so I really think she expected me to do that!"

Brynn sighed and shook her head. "Would you like another faerie bubble?" she asked, holding up a starberry-flavoured one.

"Sure, I'll take it." He held out his free hand, Brynn dropped it in, and he popped it in his mouth.

"I think King Jazan and Queen Nabile are supposed to come and visit before too long," she said after she popped lime faerie bubble in her mouth.

"Are they? That'll be fun."

"...I can't believe you managed to say that without sounding sarcastic at all."

"...You know what? I can't believe I did, either. Aha, they're back!"

The kids had returned, each sporting a faerie-themed sundae. Hanso noticed that most had wings. Were the wings edible? He'd have to watch them to find out...

* * *

Next chapter coming when I can get around to it...


	3. Chapter 3

Finally up! I think I re-wrote this part no less than four times, haha. There's some tough stuff in here. Hanso doesn't actually say anything about it in the comic, but his sad expression after Brynn tells him that it's his fault that Faerieland's in danger and that she almost lost her job because she trusted him made me think that he DID actually learn an important lesson about trust and friendships at that point. I tried to include some discussion about that conversation in here, but that's not exactly the kind of thing you'd dwell on while talking to a bunch of kids, is it? Therefore, it was mostly dropped.

Thanks for the feedback! I have _another_ doctor's appointment tomorrow, oh joy of joys. So there probably won't be any updates tomorrow. There are two more chapters after this one, and I'll get them up this weekend at the latest.

I was actually eating ice cream as I did the final editing for this chapter. Yay! (It wasn't faerie-themed ice cream, though.)

* * *

What _was_ it with the faeries' obsession with wings? Why did they feel the need to put them on _everything?_ Hanso watched as the kids sat down, each holding a faerie-themed sundae in a delicate plastic glass. Both boys had dark faerie sundaes; no surprise there. That's probably the one he would choose, if he dared to eat a faerie sundae.

"How come you didn't get any ice cream?" Ileana asked once she sat back down. Her Taelia sundae looked to be very, uh...cold?

"Brynn brought some faerie bubbles. We're good," Hanso said.

"I like faerie bubbles," Nuala said. "But I like light faerie sundaes even better!"

"Me too," Adele agreed.

They were getting distracted, so he had to make sure to get the story back on track! "Maybe next time, you should get your ice cream before we start the story, OK?" he suggested. "So, where were we...?" He knew where to start, but he wanted to make sure the kids remembered. And he wanted to observe how they treated the wings on their sundaes. The sparkly wings on Tanith's fire faerie sundae looked kind of dangerous, and were the wings on Nuala and Adele's light faerie sundaes _glowing?_ What were they made of, some mysterious element from Kreludor?

"You'd just gotten out of Nox's castle, and they tied you to a tree," Ileana told him.

"And the skeith from Altador was eating ice cream," Erik added, cramming a spoonful of his sundae in his mouth. What kind of ice cream toppings were purple? Grape? Purblare?

"Right! So everyone was sitting around the campfire, discussing what to do next and ignoring me. I noticed something rocky poking beneath the clouds, and after a few moments realized it was Faerieland! Somehow I was the only one who noticed, and it took several attempts to get some attention!"

"Well, we _were_ busy," Brynn pointed out. "Don't make us look bad, all right? We didn't know what to do next! We thought that Nox had escaped, although Xandra had actually, um...you know. And honestly, I thought you were interrupting us as revenge for my interrupting you earlier when you were trying to tell your story."

The kids giggled, and Hanso shifted uncomfortably. "So that's why you got so annoyed, huh? I think all of you needed some lessons in awareness, because I don't understand how I was the only one to notice that _and_ that the wraiths were starting to attack us!"

"I've seen wraiths once," Cael said. "My dad said they're getting really rare, though."

"As they should be," Brynn told him. "We want them to disappear for good!"

"But, anyway, once we all noticed that the wraiths were there, we started fighting them off. I fought most of them single-handedly, of course, but Brynn and Alta—ow! What?"

Brynn had kicked Hanso (gently) to interrupt him. "I believe you were still tied to the tree at this point, Hanso."

"...Right, I was. Well, I still managed to—"

"And I still had your dagger." The kids were starting to giggle again.

"Well, then maybe I used my feet? Like you just did? Actually, now that I think of it, Brynn did something really awesome at this point. She saw I was still tied and being attacked by a wraith, and she managed to take out the ropes holding me to the tree _and_ took out the wraith with just one swipe with her sword! Cool, huh?"

"Did you really do that, Captain Brynn?" Tanith asked, her eyes wide and ice cream spoon stopped millimeters from her mouth.

"With just one swipe?" Erik looked equally surprised. His ice cream was almost gone. The wings were still there, though.

"Could you show us? Do you have your sword?" Adele asked. She was getting ice cream and glowing yellow sauce all over her mouth. It looked hilarious.

"Yes, yes, and no," Brynn answered their questions in order. "I'm sorry, Adele, but I don't carry my sword when I'm not on duty."

"I'm glad she doesn't carry it with her all the time," Hanso said. "She gets mad at me so often, I'm sure one of these days she's gonna hit me with it."

"I _already have_," Brynn dryly pointed out. "With the blunt end, of course."

"Can you train me to use a sword?" Erik asked Brynn. "My parents say I'm still too young."

"When you get older and can enter the academy and begin your training, you'll start learning how to use a sword early on," Brynn told him. "Just be patient, Erik."

"Weren't you about his age when you entered the Brightvale academy?" Hanso asked.

"Y-yes," Brynn admitted. "But they do things differently here in Faerieland! You have to be older before you can begin training as a guard!"

"We're getting sidetracked again, so let me continue. Even though I was unarmed, I was more useful than that blind ogrin, who kept wandering off or getting lost or something—"

"_Hanso!_ Don't speak about the Ogrin Master like that!"

"Well, it's true! We fought the wraiths off for a while, and stopped to take a break somewhere in the Haunted Woods. It was then that Brynn formulated a brilliant plan to use Jazan as a decoy to distract the wraiths while she went to Brightvale with me and Xandra so we could do some research on the artefact. Altador, his guards, and the ogrin opted to stay with Jazan, and...what?" Hanso now realized that Brynn was glaring at him yet again.

"You're a little off. The others _all _agreed to stay as decoys. We didn't force King Jazan to. We couldn't have if we wanted to, anyway. And, _you_," she thrust a finger into his chest, "were going with me and Xandra because I was supposed to throw you in the dungeon until everything blew over."

"But you needed my help doing research!"

"Well, I knew that your, uh..._experience_ in life might help," Brynn admitted. "You're good at cracking codes, so..."

"Yep, guess who ended up learning the key to disabling the artefact?" Hanso asked with a proud grin. "And, truthfully, even if the others had wanted me to stay, I would have declined, or escaped, or whatever, because I didn't want to be separate from Brynn. I mean, I didn't want her to become best friends with Xandra while they were in Brightvale or something."

"I seriously doubt there was any danger of that..."

"You did chat with her, though. If I remember right, you even went as far as to telling Xandra about our history together, huh?"

"Yeah, I did, but she asked about it...sort of." Brynn shrugged.

"I guess it does make for a good story," Hanso admitted. "You know, kids, when Brynn worked in the Brightvale guard, she was the _only_ guard who could catch me!"

"You must be a good guard," Ileana told Brynn. Her ice cream was gone, and she was now toying with the faerie wings that had come with it.

"Well, I think...I think Hanso let me catch him on _purpose_ for some reason." Brynn looked at Hanso as she spoke, and he shrugged. "He would always make sure to steal something within plain sight, and then wouldn't put up much of a fight. I'd take him to the dungeon, and he'd escape overnight. It happened that way _dozens_ of times over the years. No one else could catch him."

"Well, maybe I wanted to boost your arrest record," Hanso said. "You know how we first met? I picked her pocket, years ago, when she was brand-new to the guards and I wasn't much more than a street urchin. I think we were just barely teens then, huh? And, honestly," he grinned as he made a big display of draping an arm around Brynn's shoulders and leaned against her, "How many other couples can say they met _that_ way, huh?"

The kids laughed while Brynn hid her face in one of her hands.

"Captain Brynn, why do you get embarrassed so much?" Nuala asked.

"This only happens when he's around, believe me," Brynn muttered. "You know, Hanso, if you'd decided to take up some kind of law-abiding occupation, it would have been much easier for both of us!"

"Pfft, there's no fun in that," Hanso said. "I don't think we'd have been able to save Faerieland if I'd decided to give up thievery!"

"But—" Brynn paused abruptly, spurring Hanso to look down at her, wondering if she'd suddenly remembered something or seen one of her fellow guards. But she didn't looked alarmed. She looked lost in thought. "But," she started again, "If I remember right, I think you learned a very important lesson while we were en route to Brightvale?"

"What do you mean?" Hanso asked, genuinely confused.

Brynn gave him a smug smile. "You never admitted anything, but the way you reacted after we told you that stealing hurts the victims and how I'd almost lost my position in the guard because of you made me think you actually took our words to heart. Everything came out a little meaner than I'd meant it to, but that was apparently what you needed, because it looked like I really got through to you. I didn't think that was possible!"

"...Oh, that." Hanso remembered _that_ quite clearly. He didn't care about what Xandra had said, but... "That did kind of...hit home, I guess you could say. I thought maybe you didn't trust me any more..."

"This should be a lesson to you children: you're never too old to learn an important, and very basic, lesson! Stealing things is wrong for many different reasons." Hanso couldn't help but notice that there seemed to be a bit of mischief in Brynn's smile. Revenge for the many times he'd embarrassed her, perhaps?

"Pfft, Brynn! You know I'm not the type to have regrets," he pointed out. "If the person you're stealing from has some sort of dangerous thing that she wasn't supposed to have in the first place, stealing it is fine! We somehow managed to make it safely to Brightvale, which was clearly celebrating Xandra's arrival, because everything was grey and drab and waaaaaay too quiet. Brynn decided to decline my offer of assistance and instead locked me up in the dungeon, because, apparently, I'd be able to help our cause better that way."

"No, that wasn't the reason," Brynn protested. "I just...needed to put some distance between us."

"Distance, huh? That really worked, didn't it, 'cause you went straight to me when you thought you'd found something!"

The kids giggled while Brynn glared. "Oh, shut up. Maybe I just needed to get away from that crazy yurble librarian!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. At least I knew you still trusted me. Brynn soon found a book that she thought had a picture of the artefact I had liberated from Xandra on it, though it wasn't quite the same. It was really similar, though, and she'd glanced at the book and found out it _might_ somehow be connected to it. Since the book had been written by intellectual people a long time ago, they made sure that the book was as confusing as it could possibly be."

"That's...probably true," Brynn agreed. "They wanted to make the directions on how to use the artefact as confusing as possible."

"Like the directions for putting together a new piece of furniture," Cael said.

"Exactly!" Hanso nodded, and paused a moment to stretch. Already he was beginning to get tired, and he was only halfway through the story! "Just as Brynn was about to run off to try to find Xandra, we noticed that something was going on outside. It sounded like there was fighting going on! Brynn decided to give me the book, but instead of freeing me from that cell, she decided to run off and fight by herself. Not the smartest move, you know."

"I _can_ take care of myself just fine, and, besides, it's not like_ you_ were armed or anything—"

"—because you still had my dagger. No need to remind me. Brynn _had_, however, left my lockpicking tools nearby, so I made a lasso out of my belt and the sheets from the cell's bunk and was able to rope it in no time!"

"You didn't want Hanso's help fighting off the wraiths?" Erik asked Brynn.

Brynn shifted uncomfortably. "I...I didn't know what was going on. I didn't think that, well..."

"I don't know _what_ you were thinking," Hanso finished for her. "I'll bet you made sure that my lockpick set was close enough for me to grab it if I needed it, huh? You knew you'd need my help!"

"...That was an accident. Honestly. An accident."

"_Sure_ it was, sweetie." Hanso flashed Brynn a cheesy grin, getting a glare from her and giggles from the kids. "I made sure that the guards took a nap—the guards were a skeith and a draik, by the way—and made my exit. Brynn, do you know if there's some sort of law that says that every country in Neopia has to hire inept skeith and draik guards into their forces?"

Brynn snorted and shook her head. "That's a really stupid question."

"So, you mean, the answer might be 'yes'?"

"Are there many skeiths and draiks in the Faerieland Guards?" Nuala asked.

"There are a few of each," Brynn said. "They are quite capable, however. Not inept."

"Once I got outside, I could see Brightvale was in some every deep trouble. Wraiths were _everywhere!_ Some of the monsters looked much stronger and more substantial than what we had seen in the Haunted Woods. One of them was even trying to attack the Brightvale Guards with a catapult: it was carrying the catapult over its head and looked ready to throw it on someone!" Hanso laughed. "I think someone needed to teach it how to use a catapult, huh?"

"It was really a mess out there," Brynn agreed. "We'd never trained for anything like _this_, so it wasn't easy trying to keep up with them."

"Yeah, and it showed! Remember how you got your sword stuck in a signpost? And then one of the monsters almost attacked you?"

Brynn nodded. "I remember that. You jumped on it and wrestled it to the ground."

"Whoah, really?" Ileana asked.

"Yes, he did, but it probably wasn't as cool as he will try to make it sound," Brynn said.

"What?" Hanso scowled at Brynn, pretending to be deeply offended. "The monster fell into a fruit stand, which was hilarious _and_ created a big mess! What's not cool about that, huh? I tried to reason with Brynn, pointing out that we had no chance whatsoever against these creatures, but she was really stubborn and wouldn't listen."

"I wasn't about to abandon Brightvale," Brynn protested. "As a member of the guard, it was my duty to keep the town safe!"

"Kinda hard considering there were lots of wraiths and not enough soldiers. Not only were you extremely stubborn, but you also had the _brilliant_ idea to throw your sword at me, huh? Quite an amazing moment for you, Brynn!"

Brynn kicked him again, though she was flushing just a little. "Don't joke about that! It was a very serious situation, and you were having a rare moment: you somehow hadn't noticed the wraith sneaking up behind you! I saved you!"

"And then you _taunted_ the wraiths! That was probably the single stupidest thing you've ever done in your life! Can you imagine Brynn acting like that?"

The kids giggled while Brynn buried her face in her hands. "I was just...feeling...reckless, I guess. I didn't know what I was doing!"

"No, that was just plain _stupid_," Hanso corrected her.

"Yeah, that's pretty stupid," Erik agreed. "My dad said we have to be very careful around the wraiths!"

"I would never do that again," Brynn admitted, looking back up. She was still flushed. "That...I guess I just wasn't thinking when I did that."

"See, Brynn has a reckless side to her. Just, unlike me, she doesn't let it dominate everything she does," Hanso said. "She also nearly gave me a concussion with that sword. But then something _really_ scary happened: the wraiths grabbed Brynn and dragged her away! They started ganging up on me, too, so I grabbed Brynn's sword, got into one of the catapults, used her sword to cut the rope and catapulted over the wall, out of Brightvale!"

All six children were staring at him with wide eyes. "Are you serious?" Ileana asked.

"You didn't _really_ do that, did you?" Tanith asked.

"How could you do that without getting hurt?" Cael wanted to know.

"Did he do that?" Adele asked Brynn.

Brynn shrugged. "I didn't see it, since I was busy being captured, but he did get out of Brightvale awfully fast, so he may have done it. I certainly wouldn't put it past him."

"But how did you do that without getting hurt?" Cael asked again.

"I don't know. I was just really lucky, I guess," Hanso said. "Once I was outside, I heard Brynn call me, and saw the wraiths dragging her away. She told me to go and take the book to King Altador, but, honestly, do you think I'd just leave her like that?"

"Nope, you would never do that!" Ileana said.

"Exactly. Brynn didn't know that, though. She _should_ have, but she didn't. I followed behind at a safe distance and saw that the wraiths took her to a cave. I managed to sneak in unnoticed. Wearing dark clothing all the time can have some major advantages!"

"I'm still amazed that the wraiths didn't see you," Brynn said. "Xandra was in the cave, too. She claimed she had been in the library trying to find me when the wraiths grabbed her and took her to the cave. Now, though...I'm not so certain she was telling the truth."

"If she was controlling the wraiths at this point, she wasn't doing too good of a job of it," Hanso muttered.

Brynn smiled. "Knowing Xandra, she either hadn't tried controlling them yet, or she was getting impatient and angry with them and zapped them all the time."

Hanso laughed. "That makes sense. That explains a lot, actually. I knew I had to rescue Brynn first, because she was the only one who trusted me and could vouch for me and, besides," he shrugged, "I wasn't just going to walk away from the only one in our merry little band whom I actually _liked_. I may be a thief, but I have standards. Working together, we managed to get out of the cave and save all the neopets who were stuck in there."

"'Working together'? Wow, I thought for sure that you'd try to take all the credit," Brynn muttered.

"Oh, right. I guess I should have, huh?" Brynn shook her head, and Hanso continued. "I traded Brynn's sword for my dagger, so at long last, I got that back! Xandra actually helped us fight against the wraiths; I'll bet they weren't too happy about that. Of course, Xandra seemed just as eager to hit _me,_ so that gave us some problems."

The kids giggled. "Actually, Hanso," Brynn said, "At some point during our ordeal, I think _everyone_ wanted to blast you, me included."

"Well, you certainly hit me several times. You've even hit or kicked me a few times today! "

"That wouldn't happen if you weren't such a smart-aleck all the time!"

"Well, soh-ree, sweetheart, but that's just the way I am! Once we were a safe distance away, Brynn praised me for going to save her, and...Xandra, I guess, from the wraiths instead of going to Altador, and Xandra—"

"Ahem." Brynn interrupted. "I did thank you for coming for us, but I _also_ told you that you should have gone to Altador and the others. I was quite capable of—"

"—taking care of yourself, I know. You proved that at Brightvale, didn't you?" Brynn rolled her eyes, but said nothing. "And Xandra, I was pretty annoyed with her at this point, because I _had_ risked my neck to save her and Brynn, and she thanked me by trying to zap me with her magic and was pretty rude on top of it all. She did finally thank me, but it wasn't genuine, like Brynn's. I gave her the book since I was finished with it, and she and Brynn found a map inside. The map just happened to be a place I knew about!"

"Quite a contrived coincidence, really," Brynn muttered.

* * *

So I really do think Brynn was uncharacteristically stupid and reckless during the wraith attack on Brightvale. I don't know if she was just distracted or her brain froze or what, but it's interesting to note that she decided to toss her sword and taunt the wraiths after Hanso grabbed her arm and tried to reason with her. Did she just not like him touching her, or did she not want to admit that Hanso was right and that she should have followed his advice? I have a feeling it might be both...


	4. Chapter 4

Well, something came up, and I have to go ahead and post the rest of the story now or wait a whole week. I'd rather post now, despite the fact that I'm kind of light-headed and weird and WHEE... (and in a bit of pain. ._. )

Sport: You bring out some good points that I honestly hadn't thought of before. I never gave much thought to their instincts, which is really sad considering that you'd think I'd be pretty familiar with cats by now (I live with 3 of them, after all). Brynn MUST have really good fighting instincts, and, unlike Hanso, has a natural weapon: retractable claws. That would explain A LOT as to why she acts the way she did. Maybe Hanso just wanted to be really harsh on Brynn at the moment and doesn't understand much about kougra hunting/self defence instincts. I don't know, haha.

Random thought #1: The linguist in me has a bit of an issue with the "I l—" thing: it's hard to do an "el" sound all by itself in English, since the sound is made by striking the tongue against the space above the teeth. As the tongue is released, a hint of the vowel following it should be there, even if the speaker is cut short. It might be possible if the jaw is clenched shut, but unlikely (and Brynn's mouth is open). So if she was going to say "I love you," what she actually said would have sounded like "I luh—" But that would have very plainly given away the word she was trying to say.

I was curious to see what she says in that scene in other languages, but the only other one I can really make heads or tails of is Chinese (and barely at that). In the Chinese version of the comic, right after Hanso says that he'll always be a thief to her, she says: "I don't think so/I don't think that way! I..." Slightly different from the English one, isn't it?

Random thought #2: Xandra's post-evil-breakdown appearance is reminiscent of Medusa, a character from Greek mythology who is usually depicted as having snakes for hair. (Hence the "hissis for hair" reference.) Plus, anyone who looked at Medusa would be turned to stone. I'll bet she was partially the inspiration for Xandra, huh? ("Xandra" is a Greek name, too!)

And now, the longest chapter of all...which was supposed to be 2 chapters, but I have to rush to post them, soo...

* * *

"Xandra still didn't trust me for some reason, probably because she was technically working against us the whole time, but we managed to convince her that I wasn't trying to play any tricks. We headed over to the ruins, which were a lot creepier than I remembered. The girls were frightened, so I bravely volunteered to go first, like the gentleman I am."

"No, you tried to get Xandra and me to go first, so we, uh...'volunteered' you." Brynn was smirking while the kids looked confused.

"'Volunteered'? What do you mean, Captain Brynn?" Nuala asked.

"I mean that Xandra and I grabbed him and _shoved_ him in to the ruins first whether he liked it or not!"

Hanso brushed that off while the kids laughed. "Again, the details aren't important. What _is _important is that I went in first, and saw a few monsters that I'd never seen before. _Big _monsters that looked a lot like the ones we'd seen in Brightvale. I'm pretty sure I would have remembered those monsters if they'd been there before, so...I assume they were new."

"How did you know about the ruins in the first place?" Adele asked.

"Uh, well..." Hanso faltered a little, not exactly wanting to tell them about his history with the Thieves' Guild, "I spent some time there in the past. It was a great place for hiding out, since it was creepy and deserted. Of course, it was even _creepier_ with those monsters in there! We ran from the monsters, but then Brynn said she'd distract them and told Xandra and I to go and find the artefact. I wasn't too happy about that, since Brynn had done such a _great_ job of taking care of herself while facing the monsters in Brightvale, but I had no choice!"

"Cut it out, would you? I really _can_ take care of myself," Brynn protested. "You just didn't give me much of a chance to prove it! And I didn't have you distracting me this time, either."

"What? You blame me for distracting you in Brightvale? Why, isn't that just sweet of you?" Hanso asked sarcastically, causing the kids to giggle and getting a glare and another light kick from Brynn, which Hanso was able to block with his own foot. "Nice try, Brynn, but I've learned my lesson now, too: how to stop you from kicking me.

"But, you're right: you were very brave in the ruins," he continued. "And I was absolutely enthralled to have to work with Xandra, but we somehow managed to find the other half of the artefact without incident. Why no one ever took it is a mystery, but it was pretty deep inside, so I guess there's a chance that no one had gone that far."

"Or maybe Xandra planted it there while you were in Brightvale?" Tanith suggested.

"That could be," Hanso admitted. "I guess we'll never know. Whatever the case, I thought it was really weird that it wasn't booby-trapped. It _would_ have made sense if it was still there because it was connected to some elaborate trap, but it wasn't. I was expecting us to get a curse like Hannah did when she was in the Lost Desert."

"Were you there, too?" Ileana asked.

"Nope, I wasn't there when Hannah got cursed, but I heard—"

"Were you at Terror Mountain when the Bringer of Night attacked?" Erik asked.

Hanso hesitated. This was _not_ something he liked to talk about! "Uh, well...maybe? Let's go back to the story about me becoming Neopia's greatest hero! We got the artefact without getting any kind of curse, and met up with Brynn in the hallway. She had managed all right on her own this time. Xandra said she thought this half of the artefact could reverse the spell caused by the other half. It was a longshot, but worth a try. So we went back to the Haunted Woods to find the others, just to get attacked by wraiths yet _again._ Thankfully, Altador saved us, along with the guards and the blind old ogrin! ...Oh, I guess Jazan was there, too. I don't know how much he really helped, though."

"He helped," Brynn said. "He's good with a scimitar."

"Whatever. I had a nice little chat with Jazan afterward. It went like this." Hanso held his hands out in front of him, using them like puppets. "Jazan said: 'Why aren't you in the dungeon?'

"I said: 'Because I'm too amazing.'

"'No, you're not.'

"'Yes, I am! I helped find the second artefact!' And then Jazan agreed."

The kids laughed, and Brynn groaned. "Hanso, I really, _really_ doubt that."

"What did they actually say?" Cael asked.

"I don't know. I was too busy talking to King Altador, about _important_ matters. I told him all that had happened in Brightvale, at the cave, and in the ruins. Knowing how Hanso and King Jazan get along, I really doubt it."

"But you didn't hear it, so who knows? I might be telling the truth. Anyway, as Brynn talked to Altador, Jazan wandered off towards them and Xandra went to talk to me instead. She was actually civil, and though I didn't realize it at the time, already trying to find a way to fit me into her evil master plan."

"Huh?" That caught Brynn's attention. She looked at Hanso, puzzled. He could tell she had just tensed up a little. "You already knew about her plan?"

"Nooo, but she said some stuff to me that seemed kind of weird. I mean, she tried to be _civil_ to me, and, uh..." he trailed off. "Didn't I tell you? How she tried to make me doubt that we were friends and that our relationship wasn't just 'strictly professional'?"

Brynn slowly shook her head. "No, this is the first I've heard of it. If you told me before, well... I guess I forgot. ...'Strictly professional'? What in Neopia does _that_ mean?"

The kids giggled at Brynn's tone. "Because I threw you in jail for a living?" Brynn continued. "I don't get that..."

"Eh, I'm the one who said it. I guess I didn't know what I meant, either," Hanso said quickly. "Let's talk about this later, okay? Xandra wanted to go somewhere open to reverse the spell. She claimed it was so she could see better, which really made no sense because everything around us was dark and spooky and being in an open area wouldn't have mattered at all."

"She just wanted to be in a place where she could clearly see Faerieland fall, didn't she?" Ileana asked, her voice uncharacteristically soft.

"Yeah." Hanso slowly nodded. "I think that was the reason. We were attacked by wraiths just as Xandra was about to begin, so Brynn _volunteered_ the two of us to protect Xandra while the others fought off the wraiths. Xandra had us hold the artefact while she chanted the spell, and, uh...we soon realized we'd made a _slight_ mistake."

"_Slight_ mistake?" Brynn repeated. "Not only had we just helped an angry, crazy xweetok turn King Altador, King Jazan, the Ogrin Master, and the guards to stone, we actually helped her _crash Faerieland into Neopia!_That's not a 'slight' mistake, Hanso!"

"Hey, you wanted me to make the story more kid-friendly, right?" he pointed out. "But, it turns out that's _exactly_ what we did. With our assistance, Xandra was able to speed Faerieland's descent _and_ turned those working against her to stone. Of course, she didn't turn me or Brynn into stone, but we all were blown away by the artefact's power, and Xandra lost her glasses." He shuddered. "It was pretty scary."

"Was there a big earthquake when Faerieland hit the ground?" Nuala asked. All six children were paying rapt attention, their eyes wide and their voices soft and subdued.

"Oh yeah, there was. Something that big doesn't hit the ground without making a huge crater, and anything that makes a crater that big will _really_ make the ground shake."

"There were bits of rock and debris flying _everywhere_," Brynn added. "It's something I hope no one ever has to see again."

"Xandra had, uh...changed, just a bit. She clearly had deeper issues than just an anger management problem. She even _looked_ different. It wasn't just the glasses. Her hair had gotten kind of wild, like it was made of hissis or something. She was constantly ranting and talking in an even _more_ demeaning tone all the time. She suddenly became really authoritative, trying to boss us around—though, of course, the only person I allow to boss _me_ around is Brynn."

"Hanso!" Brynn didn't hit him, but her angry tone contained a clear warning.

"What? It's true! Xandra went on about how Faerieland was just a symbol, one that Neopia had needed to get rid of a long time ago, and then had the nerve to try to bring us into it, which was _really_ weird because I didn't have a _clue_ as to what she was talking about! So she then went into how Brynn sees things too simply, everything's either black or white, right or wrong, blah blah blah... Basically, she said that Brynn couldn't see that there are some grey areas in life. The faeries, for example, were very powerful, but Xandra thought they didn't live to their full potential. Everyone had been told about how great and wonderful they were, but Xandra didn't agree."

"That was really mean," Adele said.

"Yeah," Cael agreed. "Xandra must've had a _nasty_ mean streak."

"Xandra got one of the big wraith monsters to capture us and take us with her while she toured the new, ruined Faerieland," Hanso continued. "She insisted that Neopia would be ruled the right way this time, which...made no sense, really. But she seemed convinced, so she would do whatever it took to get her way. She told us that when she was young, she had been allowed to come and live with the faeries, and she had tried to convince them to get more involved in the lives of everyday Neopians, but they wouldn't. So she, uh, ended up resorting to drastic measures."

"That's an understatement," Brynn muttered.

"Xandra referred to the faeries as 'winged tyrants,' which made me realize that she had been Hubrid Nox in disguise, since he'd used the same term! She'd gone through all that trouble get that half the artefact back, and then ended up getting the second half of it with our help. Kind of...an 'oops,' on our part. Now that she had both halves, she believed she was unstoppable!"

"But you proved her wrong," Erik said with a grin.

Hanso nodded, though he wasn't grinning. This was serious stuff. "Sure wasn't easy, though. After she was done telling us all about her evil master plan, she said that we had qualities she could use and offered to let us join her. Brynn refused outright, and refused for me, too, so I had to remind her that I _was_ capable of speaking for myself and Xandra tried to win me over."

Brynn shifted uncomfortably. Hanso knew this was the part of the story she hated most. He debated whether he should try to console her somehow, or just leave her be. It was then he realized that Brynn had _already_ taken one of his hands and was gripping it tightly, her fingers securely laced through his. When had that happened? "Xandra tried reasoning with me, telling me I could be a hero, no one would care about my past, I could reach a status that wouldn't have been possible under the faeries, etc. Sure, it sounded good, but I knew that would never happen because Xandra would obviously make a _really_ lousy queen. But, I _had _come up with a plan, and I needed to briefly gain Xandra's trust in order for it to work. Unfortunately, that meant that I had to pretend to betray my darling Brynn, though I figured she'd forgive me someday."

"'Someday'?" Brynn asked. "You mean, you don't think I've forgiven you yet?"

"Well, I guess I can't be sure, can I?"

Brynn sighed and rolled her eyes. "Why, Hanso, you..."

"I'm kidding! Of course I know you've forgiven me!" He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "She tried to stop me from joining Xandra, and I pretended I was mad at her. Well, some of the stuff I said was true, maybe, but I didn't mean to break her brain. Unfortunately, that's what I did. And you'll _never_ guess what Brynn _almost_ blurted out..."

"What?" Ileana breathed.

Brynn's face was quite pink as she buried her face into Hanso's shoulder. He squeezed her hand again, hoping he wasn't pushing things too far. Brynn could have said something if she wanted to, but she didn't, so he continued.

"She said 'I l—' Something that started with an 'el' sound."

"What did you say, Captain Brynn?" Tanith asked.

"I didn't quite get to say _anything,_ I believe," Brynn said, trying to regain her composure. She wasn't blushing any more, nor was she trying to hide her face, but she was still gripping Hanso's hand very, very tightly. "Just...use your imagination."

"Something that starts with the letter 'L'?" Adele asked. "Uh...You lost something?"

"You...left something behind," Cael guessed.

"You laughed at Xandra's evil plan!" That was Erik.

"You...like faerie bubbles?" Tanith sounded very uncertain...and Hanso had to chuckle at that one, because it was true.

"You...lied about something?" Ileana guessed.

"You like, lost, lied, love, let...something?" Nuala shrugged. "I don't know!"

"Actually, what Tanith said is true, but I don't think that's what Brynn was going to say," Hanso said. "Sorry, kiddos, you didn't quite get it right, so we're not going to tell you, unless Brynn wants to."

Brynn shook her head, a hint of a smile on her lips. "No."

"See? So I pretended I was going to join Xandra—"

Tanith gasped, suddenly knowing what it was. "You love Hanso," she said softly, then giggled.

The other kids gasped. "Was that it? Was that what Captain Brynn was going to say?" Ileana asked.

"It was...it was just to keep him from joining Xandra, OK?" Brynn said quickly, her voice rather tense. She began to ramble, speaking so fast that it was hard for Hanso to pick up what she was saying. "Well, so, maybe not, but I was just shocked that...that I thought Hanso didn't trust me any more! Because, despite what anyone else said, despite what Xandra said, despite everything that he'd done in the past, I knew he was a good person. I always knew, right from the start, that he had a good heart. He wasn't evil. He wasn't like any other thief I'd ever met. He wasn't like any other neopets I'd ever met. And here, to see him pretend to join forces with someone who _was_ evil...it was too much!" She swallowed hard. "I...I couldn't... I couldn't believe what was happening."

"But you meant it, didn't you?" Adele asked.

Brynn sighed and looked at Hanso, who was already looking at her with his eyebrows raised. Their eyes locked, and Brynn smiled and squeezed his hand. "Yeah. I meant it."

The girls giggled while the boys groaned. "Can't you continue? This is girl stuff," Cael said.

"To put it simply, my brilliant plan to trick Xandra worked," Hanso said, finally looking away from Brynn and back at the kids. "It didn't _quite_ work the way I'd intended, because it seemed my fake betrayal had temporarily stunned Brynn out of her senses. I didn't know how much I meant to her until then, haha... Xandra, however, was _completely_ fooled. She trusted me, so I took advantage of that by stealing half of the artefact from her, shoved her to the ground and threw it to Brynn, who, unfortunately, wasn't paying proper attention."

"Yeah, I...I was still shocked," Brynn agreed. "...Could you just move on, please?"

"Touchy, huh? Xandra reacted before Brynn could and began drawing the artefact back towards her, so I grabbed it and told Brynn to run! She did, sorta, but Brynn refused to get far away from me for some reason. Xandra, meanwhile, was, uh...a little bit angry. I formulated a new plan, which unfortunately would involve me dooming myself along with Xandra, but it would keep Brynn safe, provided that she stayed a safe distance away, and would restore the faeries and everyone else who got turned to stone. At least, I was _pretty_ sure that it would."

"What exactly was your plan?" Erik asked.

"I'd have Xandra overload the artefact and then destroy it when she was right next to me," he answered. "It was very risky, but according to what I'd seen in the book, I knew it might work. Xandra decided to try to distract us by summoning this _huge_ monster that she called 'Oblivion' to 'deal with' Brynn. Xandra probably thought I'd drop what I was doing to help Brynn, but I knew that Brynn would be able to take it on her own. She _had_ to, because I was kind of busy with Xandra."

"How did you get Xandra to overload the artefact?" Ileana asked.

Hanso grinned. "Xandra had a short temper. I'm really good at annoying people. It was a snap: I'd annoy her, she'd try to blast me, I'd hold up the artefact that I'd stolen from her to block her attack, and voila! It absorbed the power, and eventually, it was cracked and unstable and I knew the timing was just right! Unfortunately, Xandra was really slow and her aim was _terrible_, so it took a while to get enough hits to overload the artefact."

"Your plan was very clever, though the way you word it, it sounds...way too simple, somehow," Brynn said.

"Was Oblivion hard?" Cael asked.

"I managed to keep it at bay," Brynn said with a shrug.

"Were you nervous?" Adele asked both of them.

"Nervous? I was terrified," Brynn said with a nervous laugh.

"I was more nervous than I've ever been in my life! It seemed like it would never absorb enough power. But, it eventually did, and once Xandra got close to me—threatening to kill me the whole time, of course—I threw it on the ground, told Xandra that although she might have some valid points about the faeries, she'd gone _way_ too far, and plunged my dagger into it, destroying it and causing this _brilliant_ flash of light to envelop us. And..." he paused. "That's the last thing I remember."

"His plan worked just as he thought it would," Brynn said. "As soon as that flash of light came, Oblivion started to weaken and disintegrate. And then it just vanished and the sun came out! It seemed like an eternity since I'd seen sunshine. I called out to Hanso, but...he didn't...answer." Brynn looked at him again, her eyes very soft, and she squeezed his hand. "I ran off to go find him, and discovered that he and Xandra had both been turned to stone."

The girls sniffled, though the boys appeared...intrigued, to say the least. "What was it like being a statue?" Erik asked.

"I don't know," Hanso answered. "I came to the conclusion that stone statues aren't too good at remembering things, because I don't remember _anything_ that happened between that bright flash of light and the moment that Queen Fyora freed me from that stone form. It's like I wasn't there."

"I sat by you and Xandra until King Altador and the others found us," Brynn said. "They wanted to know what happened, and, it might shock you, Hanso, but King Jazan was not happy to see what had happened to you. He seemed very sad."

"Seriously?" Hanso furrowed his brow. "Are you sure he wasn't just sad because you were sad? I mean, maybe he was just feeling sorry for you, and not for me."

"That...could be," Brynn admitted. "Queen Fyora surprised us all by joining us. She was all right, as were the other faeries! Everyone who had been turned into stone was back to normal."

"Including us!" Ileana said proudly. "...Mother fainted when she saw what happened, though. One minute we were in Faerie City and everything was normal, and the next, we were in some weird ruined city that kind of looked like Faerie City, except it was on the ground and everything was broken up!"

"Yeah, it was _really_ a shock," Cael agreed.

"The queen wanted to know what had happened, so we told her the entire story, and I told everyone how Xandra had deceived us all...and how Hanso had saved us. The queen confirmed that she did indeed know Xandra. She knew that Xandra was very powerful, but had allowed herself to go astray... And I was really proud of you, Hanso," she turned to meet his gaze as she spoke. "Not only did you do the right thing, you did it even though you knew you'd sacrifice yourself in the process."

"That's one way for a thief to become a hero, huh?" he asked with a grin.

Brynn nodded. "The queen said she owed you a debt of gratitude, and even though she was very weak, she'd try to restore you. And it worked! She was able to free Hanso from stone."

"And that's the next thing I remember," Hanso said. "I think I was still in mid-scream, too...if you can imagine me screaming, that is." He cleared his throat while the kids giggled. "And what a fine moment it was! Everyone was so happy to see me. King Altador praised my bravery. That old ogrin messed with my hair, but I forgive him. Even Jazan praised me, though he said I lacked finesse, which was totally a lie. Queen Fyora praised me, saying I had a courage that few neopets possess. She said that Xandra too was powerful and had lots of potential, but she wasted it all by being a jerk who couldn't see the good things faeries do."

"I don't think that's exactly what the queen said..."

"Well, that's what she _meant,_ Brynn. And after Fyora disappeared with the Xandra statue, Brynn gave me the best reward of all!"

"Uh-huh. What did she give you?" Ileana asked with a giggle.

"Care to tell them, Brynn?" Hanso asked with a grin.

"You mean, after you tried to scare me to death by playing with the artefact?" Brynn asked, her tone dry.

"Did I? Oh, I guess I did..."

Brynn simply crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head.

"Sorry, kids, I guess we'll have to wait for Brynn to enlighten us later," Hanso said, giving Brynn a pat on the shoulder. "Jazan bought some of the jewelry that Queen Fyora—whoah!"

Brynn had pounced on him, embracing him and kissing him on the cheek, nearly knocking them both into the fountain in the process. But Hanso managed to catch himself, and held on to Brynn with one arm while he pushed them both back up with the other. The kids were all laughing, and Hanso found it impossible to keep from joining in, especially when he saw Brynn's smug grin.

"Now _that_ was sneaky," he told Brynn. She loosened her grip on him, though, of course, he had no intention of letting _her_ go, lest she try something like that again!

"I'm impressed! I thought you'd fall into the fountain," she said with a laugh.

"I am _much_ too fast for that, Brynn. Besides, I woulda pulled you with me, you know!"

"It would have been worth it."

"It's better than that time you outright _pushed_ me in," he agreed.

"She pushed you into the fountain as your reward?" Nuala asked, confused.

"No, she kissed me, for the very first time! And she did it so unexpectedly, she nearly knocked me over. She was just..." he turned to look at her, "demonstrating that as kindly as she could." He rubbed Brynn's back while she chuckled.

"Yes. It's not easy to catch Hanso off guard," she told the kids, "but it's possible!"

"Now, where was I? Oh yeah. Jazan bought some of the jewelry Queen Fyora let me keep to give to his wife. I came to the conclusion that's the reason he was spying on me right after the faeries were turned to stone. It makes sense, right?"

"Hanso, honestly, why don't you give King Jazan a rest?" Brynn asked. "I know he's done some bad things to you, but the way you talk about him..."

"I don't like him and I never will," Hanso shot back.

"Right," Brynn said. "Well, at any rate, you and I stayed around Faerieland and Brightvale until Queen Fyora gave us our official positions, and we've been here ever since."

"Yep. I'll bet they never thought a master thief like me would be working with the Faerieland Guards," Hanso said with a grin. "But, here I am! It's a great job, and I love having lots of adoring fans. I could do without the fangirls, though..."

"Everyone else went back to their respective homes to check to make sure there was no damage," Brynn added. "The Ogrin Master went back to Shenkuu and last time we were there, we found out that he'd added classes on how to defeat wraiths to the curriculum of the Imperial Guard students."

"Which is pretty funny considering that he's blind and didn't really help us all _that_ much," Hanso muttered. "What does he really know about fighting them?"

"Hanso, you really need to give him more credit," Brynn scolded. "King Altador first checked on his home country, discovered that the statue of the darkest faerie was missing, and left to search for it. We haven't heard much from him lately. King Jazan—"

"—is back at home with his _second_ favourite ixi thief who now has a lovely collection of faerie jewelry he bought off me. She was most grateful, of course."

"_Second_ favourite? Hanso, if he _ever_ finds out you called Queen Nabile that..."

"I know, I know, he'll blast me, right? Well, if he didn't kill me for humiliating him in front of a bunch of stuffy nobles and Princess Amira, then I don't think he'll ever blast me for anything."

"Hanso!" Brynn buried her face in her left hand. "You're impossible!"

"Thanks, sweetie. You honestly don't remind me enough. I think Brynn already mentioned this, and you already know it but I'm going to say it _anyway:_ she was appointed the head of the Faerieland Guards, which is quite a promotion from the Brightvale Guard, though she's still technically part of that. And _I'm_ the queen's personal Master Thief. I even have a pin to prove it! It's a perfect position for me. I still get to have lots of adventures, but I get to hang around normal people _and _royalty, too. It can be boring when we're not on a mission, but most of the time, it's great."

"The pin doesn't really mean much, but it irritates the fire out of some of his old acquaintances," Brynn told the kids, who giggled.

"And that," Hanso sat up straight as he spoke, "is finally the end."

"That was really long, but that was cool!" Cael said.

"I can hardly believe that some of that happened!" Ileana said. "Like you catapulting yourself out of Brightvale! That's just crazy!"

"I want you to teach me how to use a sword!" Erik said to Brynn.

"Some other time, Erik. Well, Brynn and I should probably head back to the castle soon," Hanso said as he finally released Brynn and stood up to stretch. His legs were a little wobbly from sitting down for so long. He offered a hand to Brynn, and pulled her back up on her feet. "I'll bet you kids probably have to be home before too long, huh?"

"Make sure to throw your sundae glasses away," Brynn reminded them. Hanso now noticed that they had_ all_ eaten the wings that came with the sundaes. Had those wings not been as dangerous as they appeared?

"Can you tell us a story tomorrow?" Nuala asked.

"I don't know... This counts as a few days' worth of stories, doesn't it?"

"No, you should tell us one tomorrow, too!" Cael said.

"OK, well, next time we meet, I'll tell you the story of our recent adventure in Qasala. Or maybe I'll tell you about the time I fought off three Brightvale Guards at once. How's that?"

"What?" Brynn sounded surprised. "You haven't told them that story yet?"

"Well, that's one I want to tell when you're around, since you witnessed it and might help me fill in the details," Hanso said with a grin.

"It wasn't much of a battle," Brynn muttered. "You, uh..."

"Proved my mastery over them really fast? Yep, but I think I can pad it out to make it interesting."

"That would be great!" Ileana exclaimed. "Can you tell both stories next time, maybe?"

"If Brynn's with me, sure."

"Hey! I have an idea," Adele said. "Let's go bother the faerie at the healing springs, OK?"

"Oh, yeah, she can be fun! Come on, let's go!" Erik motioned for the others to follow him and Ileana, which they did. They disappeared down the street, heading towards the outskirts of Faerie City.

"...That poor faerie," Brynn said once the kids were gone.

"I'm really surprised you didn't stop them," Hanso said, stretching again. "I am so tired. How did that make me so tired?"

"I think she can handle them! And that story is incredibly long," Brynn pointed out. "You're a good storyteller, you know. Even if you don't stick with the truth, and...like to embarrass me at every occasion, you manage to make it really amusing."

"Aww, thanks, darling. I really like this storytelling business. I'd like to keep it up when we have kids of our own one day."

Brynn nodded, then her eyes widened and she gaped at Hanso in what he assumed was disbelief. "What?"

What, indeed! He was mentally gaping at himself, too! Why had he said that? It seemed as though sometimes his mouth and mind would conspire to make him blurt out things he thought were buried safely in the back of his mind. Clearly, no matter what he told himself, he wasn't fully satisfied with the current status of his relationship with Brynn...but he wasn't sure anything could be done about that.

On the other hand... He might as well run with it! Besides, he'd love to see Brynn's reaction. Maybe she'd forget if it got too awkward. Or if he said something she didn't want to hear. "You heard me. It's pretty obvious that we're gonna marry someday, right? And married couples usually have kids, don't they?"

She scowled. "You seem awfully sure of yourself."

"Do I?" Hanso managed a grin, though, in reality, he was certain that Brynn would be able notice how tense he was. Then again, he was a good actor, so maybe she wouldn't pick up on it. "Speaking of which, Brynn... Theoretically, if I proposed to you right now, what would you say? Theoretically, mind you. I'm not going to. I'm just...curious, I guess."

Brynn crossed her arms over her chest and was silent for a few moments, deep in thought. "What would I say? Hmm..."

This wasn't particularly encouraging. "...Well?"

"I would say..." She looked back at him and smiled. "Yes! And _then_ I'd demand to know why it took you so long to propose!"

"Whoah...OK!" Hanso laughed, thoroughly relieved, and grabbed her hand. "I'll keep that in mind. I kind of let my mouth run away with me there, but I'm glad I did! Let's go back, shall we?"

"What do you think our children would be like?" Brynn wondered aloud.

"I don't want to paint them faerie, that's for sure."

Brynn smiled. "And what if we have an adorable little ixi girl? Like Ileana? Wouldn't she be great painted faerie?"

Hanso thought about that a moment. "The girls? Sure. If they're ladylike and not a tomboy like you, they can be faerie, or pink, or eventide, or whatever. But not the boys, period. They should be pirate, or shadow, or fire. Something cool that'll make people realize they're as amazing as I am."

"I guess it's still a little early to talk about that, though," Brynn pointed out. "And this is such an awkward subject. I hope no one's eavesdropping..."

Hanso laughed and squeezed her hand. "You worry too much."

"What were you saying earlier, about this 'professional relationship' you talked about with Xandra?"

"Oh, trying to change the subject, huh?" Hanso mumbled. "I don't know what it meant, either. I was just trying to deny to myself that I had any feelings for you. It worked, obviously, didn't it?"

Brynn laughed, and, to his surprise, turned and hugged him, burying her face into his chest before she looked up at him. "It worked like a charm. I might be really hard on you sometimes—no, I _know_ I'm really hard on you sometimes—and I know I get annoyed at you...a lot, but I love you regardless. I can't imagine life without you."

Hanso grinned and toyed with her hair, brushing back some of the loose strands that had escaped the scrunchie. "That's great, because I love you too!" He kissed the top of her forehead. "Hey, why don't we go the long way back to the castle? Through the garden by the cliff? We can be alone and have a nice chat."

"I'd like that."

"Then let's go!" He grabbed her hand and led her through the town, to the edge of the cliff at the bottom of the crater, not far from the final battle with Xandra. It seemed like a lifetime ago, and though it had really been a terrible experience for all, everything had worked out in the end. Worked out _perfectly_, in fact. How else could the mischievous thief and dutiful guard have finally worked out the issues that drove them, apart, huh? It was destiny!

* * *

Eeek, I don't know where that fluffy bit at the end came from. You know, TFR is a very dark and violent story when you really think about it. It need a happy, fluffy ending.

And I am going to just stick with doing one-shots and short stories from now on! This was, uh...much harder than I'd anticipated, haha. MUCH harder. I can't imagine how people write novels. That's gotta be so hard.


End file.
